Friday, 6 April 2012

DETROIT: Belle Isle

Between two countries

As an island, Belle Isle lies between the USA and Canada within the Detroit River and it's one me and Joe paid a visit to a couple of months ago. Landscaped by Fredrick Olmstead [the gentleman who designed Central Park] Belle Isle is in fact larger then it's New York counterpart and is America's largest island park. Yet it's somewhat forgotten. Reached only by the American side Belle Isle is home forgotten museums, football fields, nature reserves and herds of Canadian Geese [and their droppings]. What also remains is the red and white corner markings when the island was used as a temporary race track for the IndyCar series in 1992.

It's future is unclear. While Detroit owns/runs the island it's a city running out of money [if it hasn't already] - therefore the fountain [above photograph] isn't running and the museums are closed - Detroit struggles as it is to keep schools and the police in operation so it's far from having the money to throw at Belle Isle. Detroit's Governor has suggested Belle Isle be turned into a state park or even a metro park [like many me and Joe have visited]. Local public radio station WDET [part of the PBS service] ran with the question about what should happen to the island with public suggestions including adding an entrance fee for cars, reintroducing racing, fishing piers to creating a theme park. I fear until Detroit sorts it's own finances out, the future of Belle Isle will remain unclear for some time.

* * *

I hope everyone has a lovely Easter Weekend, I'm still catching up with yesterday and everything that didn't get done after spending 13 hours in ER with the boy yesterday caused by a kidney stone. I now know the difference between American and British hospitals in a way I wasn't expecting.Which is why I never got around to blogging yesterday!

Enjoy your chocolates this weekend! Huge sized Easter eggs don't seem to occur over this side of the pond but we have some M&S goodies and some peeps left!

26 comments:

Its a real pity that everything has been left to fall apart. I could imagine if this island was in a different city it may never have suffered this bad. People have written off Detroit so it's historical and places of interest get neglected too sadly. And yeah those 13 hours dragged!

Yeah it's a little out of downtown on East Jefferson, as far as I remember it's not really sign posted at all so it would be easy to miss. But it does get a mention in post guide book recommendations of Detroit.